Governments are increasingly regulating the use of email for commercial purposes. For example, Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) came into effect in Canada in July 2014. One objective of CASL is to protect Canadians from spam while allowing continued growth for business in the global market. The introduction of this legislation brought about a need for email filtering systems that facilitate a user's (or “sender's”) compliance with CASL.
One aspect of CASL that came into effect in July 2014 was that businesses and organizations cannot send commercial electronic messages if they do not have proper consent from the recipient to send the message. The form of consent may vary, but there must at least be implied consent from the recipient to receive a commercial electronic message.
The current penalties for violating the provisions of CASL include a possible financial penalty, per infraction, of $1,000,000 for individuals and $10,000,000 for businesses. As such, businesses and organizations are provided with a significant incentive to ensure their compliance with the new legislation.
Such legislation may also provide private right of action in court against individuals and organizations who have violated the law. The private right of action may allow an applicant, or a class of applicants, to seek actual and/or statutory damages. In the case of CASL, the private right of action comes into force on Jul. 1, 2017. However, individuals may have difficulty determining when a particular email violates the legislation, and even more so determining whether they may be potential participants in a class action based on a private right of action.